Emulsions and other mixtures of oil and water are not conducive to conventional distillation as a way of breaking the emulsion or separating one of the components from the other Conventional distillation methods of concentrating such compositions too often result in scaling and other difficulties which ultimately frustrate the economics of distillation and/or recovering or recycling the components of the mixture; frequently also, the composition of the oil is altered by the time-temperature regime in the distillation process A more economical and practical method is needed for separating the components of oil and water mixtures and emulsions.